January 7th, 2019. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright last month, I'm going to continue with concept art and world building because I'm really enjoying it. I'm probably also going to continue this blog after this class ends as well.

So today, since I'm finished with the world's creatures I'm going to explain the people of the world. The world has 5 races, humans, elves, fae, vampires, and revenants. There is a lot of things to cover for each race. So I'll probably do one a day for this whole week.

Starting with my character's race (cause favoritism). My character is a fae, starting off with physical characteristics. From mythology across the world I've gathered that they are often portrayed as small creatures of varying age. In more recent media they are portrayed with wings, though originally they flew without them through magical means. Often they are associated with elemental magic. I'm going to use some of these attributes. I don't want them to be cookie cutter stereotypes so the details will be what I'll really flush out.
Appearance:
-short (average height is 4.8ft)

Appearance is influenced by magic, because fae evolved from humans when humans first discovered magic and tried to use it directly. Fae are closely linked to magic because of this. The more magic a character has the more it will influence their appearance.

-I want them to have short pointed ears (because fantasy tropes)
-Skin color varies, paler skin tones carry hints of purple and green, with darker tones appearing pink or orangy
-hair color and eye color can be anything, a characters wings and magic will influence their hair and eye color.
-they have mainly human features anatomy wise, lacking reproductive organs through.
-male wings, similarly to peacocks, are very aesthetic, shiny, and colorful
-female wings are very rugged, appear darker, and are duller in color.
-some fae don't have wings, these fae will have especially weak magic and won't be able to fly without the use of magic.
-wingless fae will be abandoned at birth, most die.
-wing sizing varies with magic capacity, though the size only minimally influences flight.
-age to appearance
               -are born at the size of a toddler (around 2)
               -at 10 appear 6
               -at 20 appear 8
               -at 30 appear 10
               -at 40 appear 12
               -at 50 appear 14
               -at 100 appear 20
               -at 500 appear 25
               -at 1000 appear 30
               -at 2000 appear 35
               -at 3000 appear 40
               -at 4000 appear 45
               -at 5000 appear 50
               -at 6000 appear 60

Fae wings start to deteriorate at around 5000, losing the ability to reproduce with their wings.  Most fae will reproduce or die in battle before they reach 2000. At most they can live to about 6000 so that's where I set the cap. I wanted fae to be able to live longer than elves, though their culture encourages dying before their prime ends. I felt like it would work well if they aged faster in their early years then it slowed in later years. This similar to humans who in their younger years are developing quickly then it slows with age. However with fae it's at a much more extreme point.

When it comes to reproduction, if they did reproduce like normal humans A: they wouldn't have enough differences from humans. B: the fae population would be huge due to the long life spans. So, I made the reproduction system painful, debilitating, and a one time deal. To reproduce a fae will rip off their wings, and cover them in the sap of a certain type of tree. After, they roast the wings, and plant and seal them in the same tree they got the sap from. The fae will then usually inform someone where the tree is and disappear to die. Often their familiar will guard the tree until they die. After a year the tree will split open revealing the child or in some cases children. If any of the children are born wingless they are left to die. If not they are taken in by a teacher to be taught everything the mentor knows.

Now we're done with physical appearance and attributes. I found a website while researching race creation and it has a pretty good list of things to develop. I've crossed out ones that have already been done.

1. History
2. Religion
3. Society structures of hierarchies
4. Common attitudes
5. Language
6. Opinions about other races
7. Laws or rules
8. Culture

The history of the fae was developed already by my friend. Who's also working on this story with me, so I'm not going to worry about that. I might make references to it when explaining how certain things were influenced by it.

I'm out of time for today so I'll continue this tomorrow. Starting probably with societal structures.

December 20th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building. Final Post!!

The last 3 weeks have probably been my favorite for this blog. Concept art and world building is super fun. I get to be creative and learn a ton of cool and varied facts at the same time. But this month is over so now it's time for a recap.

I started off by developing my worlds airships. I drew a pretty cool concept piece with a completely different drawing style than I was used to. I used an editing program to make my first speed paint. I set up the ins and outs of how the ships work. With magical functions, security, how the ships space would be used, I researched real planes, I estimated the size, figured out the occupancy of the ship, and set an estimate for traveling in my world.

After setting up airships, I worked on my worlds magic system. I started by clarifying how it was categorized into principal and physical magic types. Going through the base rules for each. I set the rule that souls are magic's power source, how that influences specialties, and magic levels. Which I defined and explained.

Branching off from magic, I went into what creatures live in the world. Going through multiple online lists, deciding which once would work in the setting, and cutting out any that were unnecessary. The list ended up being...

-animals with heightened features

         -increased size                                            -additional teeth, limbs, ect

         -amalgamations of multiple animals          -ect

-Camazotz

-spirits

         -daemons          -aetherals

         -wraiths

-dragons, wyverns

-golems

-regular animals

-elementals

I went through the details of all of them, and drew concepts for the ones that needed them. Learning a ton about mythology and trying new art styles as I went.

 I learned a lot about world building this month and I intend to continue learning about it in January.

December 17th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

So I've decided to only draw a concept for the Golems. Dragons and Wyverns are already well known enough in appearance that drawing them would be pointless. I should hope everyone can already imagine a regular animal. As well I already have an image of Lina I can use for Elementals. So yeah, I'm going to draw a Golem. My character, Esen, owns a few tiny Golems so I'll be drawing one of them. Firstly I'm going to sketch it in my sketch book like I did last time.

I just kind of rolled with what I doodled so it just kind of happened. Sometimes that's the best way to draw, instead of defining a shape or basis you just draw. I named him Scotty Botty because Esen would definitely chose a goofy name for a Golem. I'm going to make him look metallic but rusty. I've never really done a metal or rust drawing so that's going to be a challenge.

I created a slide show of my drawing process for Scotty Botty.


That's all for this post. The next post I'll probably do on the worlds humanoid creatures.

December 14th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

The video is still loading, so onto the rest of the creatures.

-mythical birds
-dragons, wyverns
-golems
-regular animals
-elementals

Starting on mythical birds, there are a lot of different legends about magic birds so I'm going to find a list. I did not find a list. To clarify I didn't find a lot of mythical birds other than the usual Phoenix and Thunderbird myths. So I've decided to not include mythical birds in my world, there isn't enough variation to separate it from creatures such as elementals. So mythical birds are being scraped.

Onto Dragons and Wyverns, firstly I'll clarify that there is a difference. I learned this while looking into the dragons in Skyrim. The dragons in Skyrim are actually Wyverns, they have two legs, plus wings. Dragons have four legs, plus wings. The only other difference I found between the two is that Wyverns are apparently smaller. So I'll be working with that as a basis for their appearances, as well as having smaller Dragons and Wyverns be weaker at magic. I'm going to have both creatures live in mountainous regions due to historical references and their ability to thrive in said environments. Dragon and Wyverns, similarly to humanoids in the world can use any type of magic, depending on their souls and magic capacity. Which ranges in the levels between 6 and 26, I wanted there to be a lot of variation in dragons. That includes personality as well, I want Dragons and Wyverns to be equal in mental capacity as humanoids, maybe even smarter in general. As for social structures, I think dragons would be more likely to live separately or in small communities of two or three. Wyverns would mostly live in groups, with weaker Wyverns banding together in large packs of 20-30.

Golems are different from the other creatures in the world, being unnaturally brought to life through magic. A lot of how they would work would depend on who in the world made them. Such as a character with weaker magic wouldn't be able to create a Golem that has a personality or the ability to use magic. Golems are basically the magical equivalent of programmable robots. So I'm just going to play loosely with Golems in the story, basing their abilities on the character who created them.

Just going to sneak in between, the video has finished loading so now I'm waiting for it to upload to YouTube. Back to work on creatures...

Regular animals are regular animals, same as real life. Though that does raise the question, how do regular animals survive with such powerful predators living in the same environment? Answer to that is population growth ratios. Regular animals would reproduce more often than the other creatures, like how rabbits do in comparison to wolves.

Last but definitely not least, these are my favorites actually, Elementals. Elementals, unlike Aetherals, are physical animals. With their magic linked to a single element each. Though due to their physical forms their magic is weaker than Aetherals, they can directly interact with the world. Appearance wise they would be influenced by their individual elements. Using Lina, my character's familiar, an air elemental ferret as an example. She has a light blue and white tint to her fur, and weighs very little in comparison to a regular ferret. They would have levels between 17-23, with rare ones reaching levels 24-26. their personalities would depend on their elements but would also be distinct from it, having their own force of will. They would live close to their elements, depending on the animal and element whether or not the live in groups.

So that's all the non-humanoid creatures in the world, I'll do concept pieces for these creatures in my next post. I'm not finished with this post just yet though, the speedpaint is finished uploading so here's that...


Now I'm done.

December 13th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Okay, now to draw wraiths, I have an Idea for how I want these to look, but no clue how to get there. I'm going to be experimenting a lot. I think for this one I'm going to draw it in my sketch book first.

I started off by loosely sketching the shape. Then I drew in the details, I didn't like how the face looked so I changed it to a gaping face thing. I want the cloak to look like it's falling apart into the wind. As well, I want the crown to look rusted and dull.

Now, to draw it on my computer I'll be uploading it into Clip and tracing over it.

So I did the initial sketch, but since I'm trying to do a completely different style than usual. I figured instead of explaining step by step, I'd do another speedpaint. So I'll record my work as I go, wish me luck.

Alright so I recorded the whole thing, around an hour and 10 minutes of work. The final image looks really cool, almost exactly what I was going for. So now I'll be using the same program as last time to edit the clips together, speed them up, and add music.

Alrighty, I'm finished the editing, now I just have to wait for it to export. I had a bit of trouble with speeding the video up, for a bit it wasn't registering that the speed had changed. It kept on listing the times as the same as they were originally. I fiddled around with it for a bit and found that while the clip will list as the original speed, the sequence of clips will register as the sped up times. The rest was easy, the video was just a minute longer than all the audio files. So I just staggered them so that there would be 30 seconds at the beginning and end of the video.

I'm going to end this post here. The video should be finished exporting by tomorrow, once it is I can upload it to YouTube. While I wait for that to load I can go through the other creatures like I've been putting off for the past couple of posts.

December 12th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright I'm going to draw the concept art for the creatures I've already explained.

I had drawn a sketch for the Camazotz already, so I just did the fine line work for that and just colored it in. In the original sketch of it had been mostly just a regular bat based on the reference photo I used. However, in the final line work I added another set of wings and made the ears bigger. Even with these changes it looks a lot like a regular bat so I might edit the design later. I do like the gradient I did on the wings though. I did one dark to light grey gradient, then in another layer above it I did a blue to transparent gradient. On the top one I lowered the opacity to tint the grey below. I did this separately on both the wing structure and membranes  (had to google the names of the different wing parts.)   I also added a leather like text to the wing membrane. Normally bats are a light brown color. I made the Camazotz grey and black, with blue tints, to have them fit more with the representations of death and darkness.

Now to start on the concept art for aetherals. One of the characters in the story has a wolf aetheral as a familiar (I'll do the world building for familiars another time). I decided to draw it for this concept piece, thing is, I've never drawn a wolf before. So I just googled "wolf" and picked an image I liked to use as a reference. I ended up just tracing the image. Well actually that's wrong, I started off by roughly tracing the shape. Then I used the airbrush tool and filled in and slightly around the sketch. I blurred the sketch and reduced the opacity on the airbrush layer. Next I did a finer line layer, followed by a layer of brightened lines that highlighted it. Finally, to show the color differential in the fur. I added a rough layer of color of over where the hair should be darker. I did this using a pencil tool I downloaded recently, because of how it inconsistently spreads. To finish it off I deleted the reference wolf image.


I'm out of time for today, so tomorrow I'll draw a concept for wraiths and finish defining the other creatures.

December 11th, 2018. Focus: Concept Art & World Building

Alright so now to actually set up the details for the worlds creatures. I'm going to start at the top of the list and work down.

I just realized while writing that ↑↑↑ that I should actually specify what I need to define for the creatures. That being...

-appearance                                -in world name
-location                                     -affinity for magic
-mental characteristics               -anything else I think of along the way

That's what I'll work with for now, onto the defining...

-animals with heightened features

         -increased size                                            -additional teeth, limbs, ect

         -amalgamations of multiple animals          -ect

-Camazotz

-spirits

         -daemons          -aethrials

         -wraiths

-mythical birds

-dragons, wyverns

-golems

-regular animals

-elementals

So starting with the top of the list we have animals with heightened features. Appearance is pretty simple, just imagine regular animals but with extra features or bigger sizing. I won't draw a concept art fr this one because of the simplicity. I'm going to have them called animals in the world, because there isn't any real differentials between them and regular animals. In regards to location in the world they would exist all over depending on the species of animal. They wouldn't have any magic capacity, being like regular animals. Mentally they would be the same as regular animals as well.

Next we have Camazotz, basically giant bat monsters. I only have a rough sketch of the Camazotz for now. I'll finish the concept art for this later, that will define the general appearance. I'm going to keep the name as Camazotz in the world, I think it will be a fun little thing for anyone who reads the story to research. Location wise, I think I'll have them live in hot, high altitude locations. The Mayan's associated the Camazotz with the night, death, and sacrifice, so I'll be using that as a basis for their magic affinity, making Camazotz more likely to have an affinity towards shadow and death magic. All Camazotz would be between the magic levels of 17 to 26. I'm setting it as a rule that magic creatures do not require a catalyst to use magic. Finally mental characteristics, they would be extremely violent and dangerous, attacking anything that comes into their territory. I also think they would be smart and cunning, stalking their prey before pouncing.

Onto spirits, spirits would be incorporeal beings, existing closely with magic. Their appearance would depend on what type of spirit they are. Since they are incorporeal they could exist anywhere in the world. Though their magic affinity would have an influence on where they might live individually.

I just had an epiphany while writing that last sentence. How would the creature's social dynamics work with others of their kind? With animals it would be similar to the real life counter parts. With the Camazotz, I think they would be pack creatures, just like real bats. Spirits would be more likely to live away from others of their kind or in small groups.

Back to spirits, since they aren't limited by physical forms they would have more powerful magic levels. More likely to be in the levels 24-26, but with some in the upper high tier levels. Mental characteristics would depend on the type of spirit. Onto the different types...

                  Starting with Daemons, I don't think they would have an appearance. With exception to when they are possessing something. In the world I want to have them be called Daemons, and no I am not misspelling demon. Daemons are the Greek origin of demons. Instead of servants of hell they are depicted as in common media and Christianity. Daemons were viewed more like ghosts or guardian spirits. They serve and protect humans from beyond the grave, bringing good fortune to those they follow. I'm calling them daemons in my stories world so to not associate them with negative connotations. I don't intend for Daemons to be wholly benevolent creatures either though. In the world they can range between good and bad depending on the Daemon. Daemons would have the ability to possess or be summoned into objects or creatures similar to demons. This would be an ability reserved for Daemons. Daemons would be more likely to have an affinity for life and mind magic.

                  Aetherals are impossible for me to explain the origin for because even I don't really know where I got my interpretation from. I will explain my idea of Aetherals, Aethrals are spirits linked to the elements. They take the appearance of transparent animals, and while physically incorporeal they can influence the world around them with their magic. I'll draw a concept art piece for them later. They would only be able to use elemental magic, and only one element per Aetheral. Aetherals would embody their given elements, being more a force of nature than an actual creature. Being so tied to their elements, Aetherals would be extremely powerful with magic.

                  Finally, we have Wraiths. Wraiths are violent spirits that devour the magical energy of others to sustain themselves. They look like black human silhouettes, with piercing, bright white eyes. I'll draw a concept for this later as well.

To explain wraiths I have to go into my worlds history for a bit. At the start of the worlds history humans where the only race. After using magic though they evolved into the other races. Using magic directly influences humanoids, due to the fact they weren't meant to use it directly at all. In this time humans who used magic could be devoured by it. Using up all the energy stored in their souls, this is what creates Wraiths.

A Wraiths only goal is to seek out and devour the souls of others. They are very similar to wraiths on this page. They don't have a magic affinity, due to lacking an energy source to use magic.

I'm going to stop here for today. I'll probably draw the concept art for the creatures mention in this post and go through the rest of the creatures tomorrow.